The History of Fairbank

Posted on Feb 8, 2016

Fairbank area, York Township; 1911

Fairbank Village was very much a rural hamlet until the late 1800’s when the Belt Line Railway station was opened here. It wasn’t however, until after World War I, that Fairbank Village really started to grow into the residential area that it is today. The extension of the Toronto streetcar railway lines into Fairbank Village in 1924 really helped to jumpstart growth in this area as it made it much more accessible to Torontonians. At the same time, there was also a surge of development in Fairbank Village and many new small family homes of one to two storeys were built. As fairbank Village continued to grow throughout the 20th century and as more young families moved here, new businesses also started to pop up along Eglinton Avenue West. Today, Fairbank Village has grown into a very colourful area of Toronto with a very multicultural character.